Ubuntu 17.10 installer cannot write bootloader to Samsung EVO 850 SSD

[Frederick Harris]

I have tried the automatic install and also a manual install. In both cases, the installation of the Grub bootloader fails with a fatal error.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: ubiquity 17.10.10
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-16.19-generic 4.13.4
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CasperVersion: 1.387
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue Nov 21 19:23:11 2017
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 17.10 "Artful Aardvark" - Release amd64 (20171018)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 LC_NUMERIC=C.UTF-8
SourcePackage: ubiquity
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

Exception during installation:
Nov 22 00:23:00 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: Traceback (most recent call last):
Nov 22 00:23:00 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 1721, in <module>
Nov 22 00:23:00 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: install.run()
Nov 22 00:23:00 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 61, in wrapper
Nov 22 00:23:00 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: func(self)
Nov 22 00:23:00 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 227, in run
Nov 22 00:23:00 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: self.configure_bootloader()
Nov 22 00:23:00 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: File "/usr/share/ubiquity/plugininstall.py", line 971, in configure_bootloader
Nov 22 00:23:00 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: "GrubInstaller failed with code %d" % ret)
Nov 22 00:23:00 ubuntu /plugininstall.py: ubiquity.install_misc.InstallStepError: GrubInstaller failed with code 1
Nov 22 00:23:00 ubuntu /plugininstall.py:

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Your disk is currently partitioned to boot in bios mode, but you booted the installer in EFI mode. A warning message prompted you that this could be a problem and recommended performing a bios mode install instead, but you chose not to. You either need to perform the bios mode install, or partition the disk using GPT and set up an EFI system partition to install in EFI mode. This will be done for you if you choose the "use entire disk" guided install option.